Prosecutors rest their case in Gov. Whitmer kidnap trial

Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday against four men charged with planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer before the 2020 national election.

Key evidence over 13 days of trial came from two undercover FBI agents and an informant who was among the extremists for months and made hours of secret recordings. Two men who avoided trial by pleading guilty provided critical testimony last week.

One of the last witnesses for the government was the longtime companion of Barry Croft Jr., an alleged leader of the scheme.

“He was antigovernment,” Chastity Knight of Bear, Delaware, told jurors in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “He just thought the government’s not for him. The government doesn’t help the people out. They like to line their own pockets.”

Croft, Adam Fox, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta are charged with a kidnapping conspiracy. Fox, Croft and Harris also face additional charges related to explosives.

Knight, 40, cried as she identified one of Croft’s daughters as the person who offered him a chip during a training session with weapons in Luther, Michigan.

“Honey, I’m making explosives. Can you get away from me, please? ... I love you. Get out of here,” Croft said in secretly recorded remarks.

Defense lawyers plan to call their own witnesses. They claim the group was engaged in a lot of crazy talk fueled by agents, informants and marijuana.

But Ty Garbin, who pleaded guilty, said the men acted willingly and had hoped to create national chaos by striking before the 2020 election. He said there was a desire to stop Joe Biden from winning the presidency.

The men were arrested in October 2020 as they moved closer to obtaining an explosive that could blow up a bridge and hold back police from responding to a kidnapping at Whitmer’s vacation home, according to...